More than a dozen Chula Vista residents came to Tuesday night’s city council meeting to voice their support for the city’s police chief, Roxana Kennedy.
They came after news reports of Kennedy alleging some city leaders are trying to replace her.
“Its not by accident that Chula Vista compared to other cities is a safe city. It's a city where law enforcement is not an enemy, but an ally,” said South Bay United Pentecostal Church senior pastor Amado Huizar. “It's a direct reflection of Chief Roxana Kennedy’s leadership, and we are grateful for that.”
Huizar was one of a group of faith leaders from around Chula Vista who spoke during the public comment period of the meeting.
“I'm really hurt because she deserves better,” South Bay Clergy Association President Ruben Rodriguez said. “She was loyal and faithful to every one of you who are here today.”
Members of the public joined the faith leaders, speaking in favor of Kennedy.
Kennedy’s attorney, Cory Briggs, said city leaders are using something that happened at a Dec. 13 police union holiday party as a reason to remove her.
The incident involved off-duty officers who were dancing. Briggs said one individual took off his shirt and swung it around his head during a contest.
“The chief went up, she had a dollar bill in each hand and put one in each of his front pockets. That's it — (she) didn't touch him, didn't do anything else. (She) wasn't dancing,” Briggs said. “Then she turned around and took a bow for the audience and everybody there started laughing and clapping.”
Briggs said city staff told Kennedy they received complaints about her conduct at the event, and were going to audit the police department.
“She has been there over 30 years, she has been chief for roughly 10 years. She got nothing but praise,” he said.
On Feb. 6, Briggs sent the city a letter asking it to preserve all evidence related to the incident and alleged “adverse actions” against Kennedy.
Briggs said he believes some city leaders are looking for a reason to get rid of Kennedy, to bring in someone else.
“You've got a supermajority of Latinos (on) the city council. I think they want someone who looks more like them to be the chief. And they didn't have the spine to sit down with Chief Kennedy to say ,‘Hey look, we want to go another direction,’” Briggs said.
The City of Chula Vista declined an interview, but sent KPBS a statement rejecting the accusations in Briggs’ letter.
“The suggestion that there is a conspiracy to replace the Chief is entirely false,” the statement said. “Moreover, the assertion that ‘a majority of the City Council,’ which consists of four councilmembers of Latino descent, seeks to ‘replace her with a Latino’ is offensive and rooted in a racist assumption that Latino leaders cannot act with professionalism and integrity.”
The city said Kennedy is on “approved personal leave,” and said it cannot comment on the holiday party due to legal constraints.
Briggs said Kennedy’s approved leave is for medical reasons, and will last until the end of February.
